Author: lleonardbw

San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s podcast with Michael Duca; San Jose will strike out with Supreme Court; Giants drought continues

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–The City of San Jose’s bid for the Oakland A’s to move the team to the South Bay is very unlikely as San Jose is asking for a hearing from the U.S. Supreme Court to remove baseball’s long time exemption status so that would clear the way for the A’s to move to San Jose. San Jose is a very lovely place and it’s very diverse but I would bet you that a cricket team would draw better than a baseball team there would.

In Oakland you have a mayor there Mayor Libby Schaff whose business oriented you have a city that is in the process of becoming the Brooklyn of the west coast. There is a lot of gentrification, lot of positive energy with young people coming in. There is more of a sense that it could happen and a sense that things could be done. Oakland doesn’t have the austerity of a former Mayor Jerry Brown.

You don’t have the lunacy of the former mayor you don’t have the complete lack of interest of the mayor who proceeded Brown offer anything that involved sports whatsoever. The thing that is most likely to happen is the A’s and the city of Oakland recognize that there is not much sense in having a 20,000 seat arena to attract the occasional rock show, rap show, and the circus. Circus fans can come back now that they don’t have elephants anymore.

SF Giants update: It’s got to be ironic for Giants leftfielder Nori Akoi when he runs out to leftfield he has to stand near the three championship flags out there including the one that was taken away from him in Kansas City last year. It’s got to be as almost as interesting as the Yankees and Cardinals who met in the 1964 World Series and they swapped managers when it was over.

They didn’t really trade managers but when their contracts were up they went to work for the opposing clubs. It’s got to be a little strange for Akoi to look at the standings the Royals have yet to lose, they won 32 of their last 35 games or some ridiculous thing like that. The Royals are playing as well as the Giants are not yet the Giants do have 154 games left before it’s all settled.

The Giants are are pleased to have Akoi in left he’s proven to be a bigger offensive contributor than they are expecting and he’s a better defender based on what they were expecting. The Royals substituted for Akoi early in last season’s World Series but he proved to do well and the Giants are very happy to have him on the club this season.

Michael Duca does A’s and Giants commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch Miguel’s podcast below

Aaron Hernandez trial podcast with Tony Renteira: Hernandez plans on appeal; circumstantial evidence overwhelms jurors

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by Tony Renteria

You talk about circumstantial evidence in the Aaron Hernandez trial the prosecuting lawyer said that circumstantial evidence could be just as powerful as regular evidence. If you go to bed at night and you wake up and there is snow on the ground you know it snowed in the middle of the night even though you didn’t see it that’s kind of the context of what were talking about.

There is so much circumstantial evidence against Hernandez it’s just obvious that he committed this crime. You have to think of the evidence as the straw that breaks the camel’s back. There was just so much of this and that that each one of those degrees of evidence just kind of overwhelmed the jury where he was at the time of the crime.

There was so much to overcome and Hernandez never looked like an innocent guy during the trial he looked like a well dressed thug. He never showed any emotion during the trial and even when the verdict was read. When you listen to what the jury said they took a long time to decide only because there were so many charges to sort out.

There were two other friends with Hernandez during the shooting and there was the question of the three who was the trigger man in killing Hernandez’ associate Odin Lloyd? That should be answered by the fact that Hernandez was convicted for first degree murder and the prosecution established that it’s not like he wasn’t there and he has another murder charge coming from a double homicide that is being brought forward.

Hernandez has a second murder charge coming from a double homicide from what the legal experts say the second murder charge is more convincing than the first one. So it’s not like this guy was a good guy and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a bad guy the only thing prior to him being found out was all he could do is catch a football.

How important was the circumstantial evidence was? There were so many important pieces of evidence and they were all important, there were so many important pieces. It wasn’t as though the prosecution had to have a smoking gun that’s how important the circumstantial evidence was. They never had the murder weapon and they still got a first degree murder conviction.

Tony Renteria covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast regarding the Aaron Hernandez trial below

NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs podcast with Joe Lami: Their off and running Isles and Habs take first games of seires

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by Joe Lami

Pittsburgh-NY Rangers: The Penguins are cursed and the Rangers are too good of a team. The Pens are really banged up your really looking at an injured Pen Evegeni Malkin for the playoffs. The Rangers have no problem winning this series. This one could go maybe five or six if the Pens can get by the Rangers, if they can put a quick move on early in the series. But none the less the Rangers will win this one.

Ottawa-Montreal: This series should be the best series and the Senators could get off to a lead early because the Sens have the Canadiens number during the regular season. That makes it great playing down the line in every single game into it and you know what this is going to be a great series and just like I said the Sens and Habs played a one goal game much of game one on Wednesday night with the Habs winning 4-3. If Montreal can hang with Ottawa which they did in game one they can go deep in this series to a Stanley Cup playoff run.

Detroit-Tampa Bay: There is not going to be much of an advantage for the Tampa Bay Lighting and former Detroit Red Wing Steve Yzerman going into this series against his old team from Hockey Town. The Lighting are too much of an offensive team against Detroit. The Lighting have that high flying offense and the Lighting have a great goalie in Ben Bishop and Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard is good. The Lighting will win this series and anybody can figure that out by the scouting of these two teams.

NY Islanders-Washington: This series will mark the Islanders last hurrah at Uniondale as they will be moving onto Brooklyn after the post season but first they have the task of the Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Captials at hand. I personally chose the Islanders in this series it should be close. The odds makers might like the Caps because of what Ovechkin brings to the series who creates great offense for the Caps and anything can happy in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and I like the Islanders in this series.

Winnipeg-Anaheim: The Jets like their confidence and the way their playing going into this, the Jets have not been in a post season since coming back to Winnipeg from Atlanta. The Ducks are depending on their starting goaltender Fredrik Anderson in this series as the Ducks who had seen his successful play during the regular season the Ducks also held a wide lead in the Pacific Division. The Ducks are one of the last teams to get into the playoffs they had to fight tooth and nail just to get to post season. The Jets have the size and the speed but look for the Ducks as they have a little bit more experience. You got to like the chances that Winnipeg has with home ice advantage it’s the first time they’ve made a playoff since 1996.

Minnesota-St.Louis: For St.Louis this match up is very similar to the one to the Montreal-Ottawa the Blues should be the favorite and they have improved playing in the late minutes of games and they’ve been playing great hockey of late you want to see that going into the playoffs. The Blues are one of the deeper teams in this Stanley Cup the fact is St.Louis is the favorite should be no surprise to anybody. Minnesota can make this a series however I like the Blues who can get to the Cup Finals and I like the Blues in six games.

Chicago-Nashville: The Blackhawks are one the NHL’s elite teams and you got to give them that but they haven’t been that great this season. Patrick Kane is coming off an injury and played in game one. The big question is can Kane be the big difference maker for Chicago? That’s going to be kind of how it is, if Kane plays well the Hawks should win this series. I like the Predators Filip Forsberg he’s been outstanding for the Preds leading them with 63 points and 26 goals during the season. The Hawks have the playoff experience but the Preds have Pekka Rinne who has .923 saves in goal and can help defensively to get the Preds to the next round.

Calgary-Vancouver: Two Canadian teams facing each other and in the Western Conference playoffs too and this is first time this has happened since 2004 that five of seven of the teams in the Stanley Cup are Canadian teams and it’s very exciting. Personally your looking at two rivals two teams that were not expected to make the playoffs at the beginning of the year. Calgary has to get past Vancouver.This series should run six or seven games, just the way the Flames play they never give up. They were one of the leaders in the entire league in third period come backs it’s going to have a huge factor for Calgary in that never say die attitude.

Listen to Joe Lami’s podcast on the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs below at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Jeremy Kahn: Lack of runs hurting Giants

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by Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO–Thus far this season the Achilles heel for the San Francisco Giants is the lack of being able to score with runners in scoring position.

Entering the game, the Giants were an abysmal 13-for-91 and went 0-for-7 tonight and the Colorado Rockies took advantage of the misfortune and won the game 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 41,051, the 329th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

Corey Dickerson got the Rockies on the board in the top of the second inning, as he lashed a single to centerfield that scored Nolan Arenado, who led off the inning with a double off of eventual losing pitcher Tim Hudson.

Dickerson scored the Rockies second run of the inning, as he scored on a Hudson wild pitch.

D.J. LeMahieu drove in the Rockies third run of the evening in the top of the fourth inning, as he sacrificed to first base to Dickerson with from third base.

It was the second run scored on the evening by the left-handed hitting Dickerson.

The Giants put together a rally in the bottom of the eighth inning, as Angel Pagan picked up his third hit of the night, then Brandon Belt walked.

Gregor Blanco then came up, and hit what looked like a certain foul ball; however Arenado reached out and caught the ball, as he dove into the stands.

Matt Duffy finally got the Giants on the board, as he hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Pagan from third base after he advanced there on the great play by Arenado.

Buster Posey, who did not start the game, nearly tied up the game; however Charlie Blackmon made a leaping catch at the wall to end the inning.

The Rockies added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning, as Wilin Rosario grounded out to Brandon Crawford to score Dickerson with his third run of the game.

Christian Bergman went the first four innings for the Rockies, as he allowed just three hits, while walking two and striking out four.

Since Bergman did not go the required five innings to pickup the victory, the victory went to Scott Oberg, who was making his major league debut against the Giants.

In his only inning of work, Oberg allowed a hit and struck out one before being replaced by veteran LaTroy Hawkins.

Hudson was on the losing end of things for the first time this season, as he went seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while walking no one and striking out four.

This was the fifth consecutive loss for the Giants, their longest listing streak since losing six in a row twice during the 2014 season, with the last time coming from July 24-29.

That last six-game losing game streak began in the road finale against the Philadelphia a Phillies, then the Giants were swept by the Dodgers and then lost the first two games to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Jeremy Kahn is a San Francisco Giants beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com Jeremy says for the Giants not to panic it’s only nine games in listen to the podcast below

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: GM D’Allesandro could get his walking papers at anytime

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by Charlie O Mallonee

SACRAMENTO–It was just too much to expect from the Sacramento Kings to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. The only thing that was surprising in that game was OKC let the Kings hang around a lot longer than I thought they would to be competitive. Ultimately in the end it was just too much OKC and not enough for the Kings and they lost that one 116-103.

Then the game on Sunday against Denver it mirrored exactly the same thing. The Kings hung around about three quarters and then fell back and they lost that game 122-111. It would have been great to have had the audio so I could have played it back for you. In both games head coach George Karl had almost the same post game analysis.

Karl said, “we played really well for 40 minutes it’s the last eight minutes that’s killing us.” A couple of reasons for that is number one the Kings are still getting used to the system and number two their short handed. When a team is playing shorthanded and literally missing it’s two big stars and Darren Collison was also out.

Collison being a good point guard but a very productive point guard with all three including Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins it’s amazing they’ve scored the points that they have because the young guys stepped up and it’s helped them make some decisions about who they want to go after and keep on the team next season.

Regarding who’s running this team right now is it general manager Pete D’Alessandro or Vlade Divak? Nobody really knows right now and right now nobody’s talking. There has been a great deal of projections that because the Kings have had this very difficult second year under D’Allesandro that he could be on his way out.

He’s the one who made the decision about firing former head coach Mike Malone, he was going to make the decision about staying with an interim coach for awhile and his intent was not to hire a full time coach until the end of the season but with Tyrone Corbin it wasn’t working out so the hand was played and the Kings went with George Karl.

Charlie O covered Kings basketball during the 2014-15 season and did commentaries each week listen to his podcast below:

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: U.S. wins the cold war against Cuba 54-0

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Fifty-four(54)years since Fidel Castro declared Cuba a
Marxist-Leninist country, today Cuba is so poor and so in
need of help that soon the USA will have it first embassy in
Havana for over half century. Cuba will be removed from the
terrorist list, and they were there for good reason, if you go
back and see the countries they associated with, every enemy
of America was a friend of Cuba.

So who won the Cold War between the USA and Cuba?
Obviously the USA. Did anybody expected anything else, after
70 years of communism collapsed in Russia in 1989, Cuba was
to follow. But that is not the way some here in
the USA will portray the moment we “set shop”and
open the US Embassy in Havana. They would say that
cooperation is essential, that Obama was right, that we need
the same health care system as Cuba and they will pick what
they like about Cuba. Some idiotas(idiots in Spanish)will go
the length of praising Cuba’s beauty and Cuban’s
sensational beaches, like Fidel Castro put them there, and
not God.

But most of these people, quick to talk about
violations of human rights, never really spoke about those
violations of human rights, the Cubans in the island are
still subjected to.

Last week USA Today, revealed a poll,
they said it was taken without the authorization of the
Cuban government, inside Cuba and it showed that Obama was
more popular than Fidel Castro. Well, the USA Today should
know that anybody would be more popular in Cuba than the
Castros. As a matter of fact(going back for a
while)I remember as a young man when John F.Kennedy, after
getting elected President of the US, was also more popular
than Castro on the island.

My father Joaquin left Cuba as a Cuban-exile in 1964.
At that time, radio WQBA in Miami had an Open Mic at Miami
International Airport, with reporter Tomás García-Fuste.
The microphone was for Cubans arriving in the US a country
of freedom. My father said at that microphone, right at the
airport: “Caballero, el comunismo es una
mierda” -translation- “Gentleman, communism is crap”. Joaquin was
absolutely correct.

Sometimes history gets in the way of our Presidents.
Re-establishing relations with Cuba was going to happen,
just like when we captured Osama Bin Laden, there are
certain things(like history)that gets on the way of leaders.
I knew that we would prevail at the end, and capitalism has
prevailed also in Cuba over
socialism-communism-totalitarism.

I knew when I first arrived in this country in 1961,
that Communism would fall before Democracy. And(if I may say
it also)I was right like my father Joaquin, Cuba’s
system has been a monumental failure. The blockade was not
the issue, because Cuba during the past few decades, traded
with Canada, and many countries in Europe, so it was not the
American blockade that brought the Castro’s to their
knees, it was their own failure of a bankrupt system.

The famous one-percent(1%)that the left in American
made so important on their debates, they forget to mention
that in Cuba, the one-percent is the government. Cuba’s
rulers do not lack food, private transportation or many
other luxuries, that the average Cuban in the island is lack
of. But they will never tell you that here in the land of
plenty, because many people that are born in this country
failed to realize, that there is no other country like the
United States of America, and that our system of government
as flaw as it may be, still is the best on earth.

Cuban baseball players should be happy, they soon will
not have to risks their lives trying to escape the
island in the middle of the night in small and dangerous
craft, looking for the Freedom THE CUBAN PEOPLE STILL DOES
NOT ENJOY.

I am sure there will be more news about this in the
future.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Angels Spanish TV voice and the A’s Spanish radio voice and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: After Obama-Castro meetings look for more players out of Cuba

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by Amaury Pi Gonzsalez

OAKLAND–At last count officially there were up to 20 teams with Rusney Castillo who was sent to the minors and Yasmany Tomas from the Arizona Diamondbacks to join the ranks of Cubans in the Major Leagues. At the beginning of this season there were 20 players born in Cuba among the 30 Major League Baseball teams according to the Associated Press report.

The Dominican players lead the foreign players with 83 and Venezuela with 65 and Cuba is up there. My point is even without relations between the U.S. and Cuba for some reason which I don’t understand it’s very tough to escape Cuba Kendrys Morales who plays for Kansas City and I had a chance to speak with him in Anaheim with the red hot Royals (7-0).

It took Morales nine times to escape Cuba because there was no relations like it is now, nine times and he finally made it on the tenth try. It’s not easy but recently a lot of Cuba players have been leaving. There is former relations there, Cuba was a pioneer and this is documented in history the first player for Latin America ever to play baseball organized baseball was a man called Steve Ballan who played in the U.S. from 1868-70 with the Detroit Haymakers of the American Association.

The AA became the National League in 1876 as we know it today, so Cuban players have always been pioneers. Because of the last 50 years with no relations with Cuba and the U.S. and now the relations have come back this year and of course people will be able to travel in and out of the island freely and I hope so.

Amnesty International is a big human rights non partisan organization that just reports what they see and Cuba is still one of the biggest human rights violators. In other words you can not demonstrate in Cuba, you can not say anything in the streets in Cuba about Castro they’ll put you in jail. There is no freedom in Cuba, so people have to be careful. There’s a lot of stuff happening between Cuba and the U.S in trying to patch up things from over the decades.

It’s just not like going to open two Hilton Hotels and saying were going to open two Hiltons in Havana, you have to get things settled with the U.S. Embassy, then relations, then political maneuvers that Cuba has to promise to the U.S. that human rights will not be violated. As of now a lot of Cuban players are leaving the Island of Cuba.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and is a member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and does News and Commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

Golden State Warriors podcast with David Zizmor: Warriors reduce minutes for key players in preparation for post season

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Golden State Warriors are in the weird part of the season an unexpected part of the season really. They have no real immediate thing to play for. They clinched the Pacific Division, they’ve clinched the Western Conference for the number one seed overall in all of basketball. Which means they’ve clinched the best record in all of basketball.

The only thing their playing for is pride just to keep themselves in tune, whereas the teams they were playing San Antonio and New Orleans who the Warriors lost to had a lot on the line. The Spurs are playing for a higher seed. If you look at the Western Conference standings the two through six seeds are incredibly fluid.

It just changes every single night because these teams are playing each other, just the other night San Antonio played Houston because the Spurs won and the Rockets dropped all the way to the second seed down to the sixth seed. Whereas San Antonio went all the way up from the fifth seed to the third spot.

It’s a lot of moving around and New Orleans another team that the Warriors lost to in a very close game 103-100 last Tuesday. The Pelicans are fighting just to make the playoffs. They are tied with Oklahoma City for the eighth seed and with a tie that would mean New Orleans would get in the tie breaker. They beat Oklahoma City three games to one for the season series this season.

Every game is a big deal for the Pelicans they need to win or they’re going to end up going home. The Spurs are not as desperate because their in no matter what. They want to get that home court advantage for one round if they can. The Pelicans and Spurs have a lot to play for, the Spurs have a good chance as everybody has been praising the Warriors.

The Warriors have been good all season and the Spurs by beating the Warriors last Sunday wanted to send a message to the W’s beating them 107-92 that things won’t be so easy. The W’s have been reducing some of the minutes for some of their top players just to make sure they’re rested and ready to go when the playoffs start.

David Zizmor does the Golden State Warriors commentary each week at http://www.sportsrsadioservice.com listen to his podcast below

NFL Podcast with Tony Renteria: Hernandez case nearly tainted by TV station; Former 49er set to appear in court for assault

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by Tony Renteria

Two jurors in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial clam they saw a commercial company car that turned out to belong to WHDH TV driving in a remote parking lost where they were parked and was driven by the cameraman. Judge Susan Garsh admonished a WHDH reporter in the courtroom. The cameraman has since been banned from the courthouse grounds until a verdict in the Hernandez case has been rendered. Everything is under a microscope here and a tainted jury is the last thing you want when the case is close to be decided by the jury at any day now.

Especially in a case that is high profile like the Hernandez case, it seems like everybody in the news cycle is looking for the next big story. God forbid if somebody in the media kind of taints the case by doing their job and being over zealous in their job. I feel sorry for the people of Massachusetts to have to pay for a second trial.

On Tuesday former 49er lineman Kwame Harris was arrested for assault for attempting to bite a police officer in San Francisco. Harris was found asleep in a Audi Sedan with the engine running. Cops were investigating a hit and run in the neighborhood. It seems like every week we have to talk about a 49er having legal troubles whether it’s an active player or now in this case a retired player whose in trouble with the law.I have to wonder what happened to the 49ers organization it’s almost like a broken record that the 49ers are having problems with the law. There was that little joke that was around the media the NFL stands for the National Felon League but the 49ers have taken it to the extreme.

Bill Musgrave Oakland Raiders coordinator: Musgrave is kind of a Northern California guy and he is a good coordinator he spent that last year in Chip Kelly’s offense and Kelly moving the ball around and throwing the ball everywhere and it also suits well with Raider quarterback Derek Carr who kind of ran that same kind of offense down in Fresno State.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the numbers the Oakland Raiders are going to put up with the yardage and points. Carr is a very accurate quarterback and give him a chance to put something between the numbers and you don’t have to have a number one or number two guy you could actually accomplish it with some decent receivers.

Tony Renteria does NFL commentary each week on http://www.sportradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

That’s Amaury’s Podcast, News and Commentary: With California water drought could A’s really install artificial turf?

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–A source said that after California Governor Jerry Brown’s mandatory 25 percent rationing on water that the Oakland Coliseum might consider using artificial turf. This might be the trend in California where the state had the majority of it’s rain in the month of December but since then just a few days of rain resulting in the push for water rationing.

If the Coliseum installs artificial turf it would be ironic because A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie said he was happy to leave Toronto since the Skydome only uses artificial turf and the Coliseum natural. At this rate the state is expected to run out of water by the end of 2016. This would not be a good idea for the A’s players to install artificial turf. A lot of players might by pass playing in California to play elsewhere where there is no drought.

The big push by MLB and teams in California on public service announcements that fans conserve water and the A’s might have to set that trend by saving on watering the natural grass at the Coliseum and turning to artificial turf. This drought is real it’s not a rumor and desperate measures will not be only be instituted by local government on water conservation but also MLB teams in California will have to take a pro active approach to the drought.

The pitching looking good: The A’s can count on starter Sonny Gray who nearly tossed a no hitter on Monday night’s opener his only hit he surrendered was to Rangers leftfielder Ryan Rua. Gray is a terrific pitcher the question is when he becomes a great pitcher he won’t be in Oakland too long if you know Oakland’s reputation they’ll start shopping him because his market value will go up.The average A’s player plays in Oakland maybe between three or four years. Four years in an Oakland uniform that’s a long career.

Also A’s general manager Billy Beane has a great eye for good talent in the pitching department the A’s will start Kendall Graveman on Thursday who has good stuff too. Graveman is not a household name but he pitched well against the Giants last Friday and he’s a young pitcher he’s a strong pitcher. Everybody has to look what happened to Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander his arm is bad out with a triceps strain, the Rangers Yu Darvish is out with Tommy John, the Giants Matt Cain is out he had elbow surgery to remove bone chips in the off season and is not expected back for two to three weeks.

Beane always finds a way to a solution to the A’s pitching, a few years ago pitcher Bartolo Colon came aboard was the number one pitcher at 40 years old and had success in Oakland. He’s still pitching with the New York Mets he won a couple of nights ago at the age of 42 but that’s the exception. A lot of young pitchers now about 57 percent have the Tommy John surgery which is really ridiculous and that’s why most guys can’t complete a game.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the TV Spanish voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below